US flag ripped to shreds by Hurricane Florence on live cam to be replaced by donation

by Kendra Mann/ABC7

U.S. flag ripped to shreds by Hurricane Florence on live cam to be replaced by donation. (Courtesy of explore.org)

An American flag that was ripped to shreds on live camera by the powers of Hurricane Florence, as it approached North Carolina Thursday, will be replaced thanks to a flag sponsor company.

Flag and Banner stepped up after hundreds of thousand viewers from across the country watched helplessly as the flag on the Frying Pan Tower cam via explore.org was utterly battered.

The camera is operated by Richard Neal, the owner of the Frying Pan Shoals Light Tower -- a former lighthouse that is now operated as bed-and-breakfast, according to fptower.com.

Neal tells a news outlet he started getting comments from angry viewers and veterans Thursday once the winds picked up and began damaging the flag, so he repositioned it to no longer show the flag. .

“They told me, ‘this is disrespectful,’ and that I need to get out there and replace the flag right then,” Neal told McClatchy newspaper. “In the hurricane.”

But once he moved the camera, the comments didn't stop. Neal says he started receiving inquiries on the flag's condition.

Eventually, Neal moved the camera back to the original position after deciding that the "flag represents who we are as America. We get beat up, battered during hard times, but we stay up, stay at it through the storm," he told the news paper

By Friday morning, the camera was down and explore.org was streaming highlights from the cam.